Wisegirl and the What If
by FieryBrunette
Summary: Annabeth is quite sure she is the only girl for Percy. But when a pretty and all but perfect blast from the past named Calypso shows up, Annabeth starts to go a bit crazy. Jealousy and paranoia lay siege in what may be Annabeth's hardest battle yet. R&R?
1. Abnormality

**Author's Note: **Oh My Giddy God Trousers! Fiery Brunette has written a new story! And seeing as I hardly ever ever do this, please do me a favor and read, yeah? You know that I'll totally send you a plate of virtual cookies if you do!**  
Disclaimer: **Rick Riordan owns all characters, plot themes and other elements from the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I own nothing.  
**Spoilers: **Basically all of the books. You've been warned.  
**Rating: **T for language and references

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"Chaos is like gravity. All it needs is a little push." -The Joker, _The Dark Knight_

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You would think that I'd be almost used to near death experiences by now.

That by facing so many _many_perilous dangers and conquering them all, that I've somehow gotten to the point where absolutely nothing can scare me, whether it means imminent destruction or not. But nope. Clearly, saving the world at least a dozen times over has done nothing whatsoever to improve my intuition skills, so that when…say…a monster tries to kill me while spending some time with my boyfriend I shouldn't be surprised in the least. But nope, not me. I remain, as always, the naive and unprepared Annabeth Chase when real catastrophe strikes. Not that I can't deal with it, but still, I'm never ready for it.

Of course.

It had started out as a normal Saturday afternoon. Normal enough for us, that is. We (that is, my boyfriend and I) came to the New York Aquarium, which—if you know us—is somewhat of an inside joke. We bought some ice cream and walked along the tanks and tanks of jellyfish and sharks. It was a perfectly nice afternoon. I wasn't expecting anything to go wrong whatsoever.

So imagine my surprise when a gigantic fist comes right out of nowhere and knocks the two of us over, also smashing several aquariums in the process and making everyone in the room and start screaming and running around.

And it's not like this sort of thing has never happened before, believe me. So, may I ask, how did I not see this coming?

I'm now standing up, blinking, trying to figure out what's going on, and what in the name of Hades just attacked us.

Clearly, ten consecutive summers spent at Camp Half Blood has done nothing for me whatsoever.

"Annabeth, to your left!" Percy now shouts at me, tucking and rolling forward on the other side of the aquarium we're standing at as he draws his sword out of his pocket.

Yes, I did say sword.

Now, yeah, to some of you _normal_ kids, I have to consider that this whole ordeal of having a near-death experience while on a date may seem a bit…extreme to you.

Trust me, it's not.

In fact, can be all but a perfectly ordinary experience in your life. Especially when your boyfriend happens to be practically indestructible, and therefore a magnet to all blood thirsty beings looking for a good kill. Over the last ten months or so of dating Percy Jackson, we've probably been attacked all of fifty times while on dates. And I'm proud to say that every time we managed to get by without any major damage, quite the track record for us.

Percy shouts, grinning as he leaps after our assailant and attempts to stab him.

That's another thing about having an invincible boyfriend; when monsters attack you, it's actually kind of fun to fight them off.

Except for the small fact that I can still be killed.

But details are vastly overrated in this story, believe me.

I follow Percy's lead and duck behind the nearest glass aquarium just as the fist of a Lastrigonian Giant smashes the glass, sending poor little goldfish swimming over the entire floor. More people scream and run from the room. I merely grimace at the feeling of glass shard pricking in my shoulder. It hurts like hell, but there are certainly more important things to worry about.

Getting the Hades out of here alive sounds like a good place to start for the time being.

"Hey, Wisegirl," Percy grunts, meanwhile dodging several blows from our attacker, "Some help would be nice!"

Now, here's the part where I should start playing the part of the helpless girlfriend and start sobbing in terror while my boyfriend saves the day, right?

Wrong.

Within seconds my dagger is in hand, any hopes of having a 'normal' afternoon like a 'normal' teenager strewn about the wet floor with the goldfish.

But like I said, I really should have seen this coming.

"Go right!" I suddenly bark at Percy, whose eyes are flashing with both concentration and amusement as he bounds up to the right of the giant and pricks its left flank with a vicious stab. The giant wails, swiping at Percy and missing him as he all but skips out of his way. At the moment I can't help but feel jealous at Percy's easy agility. One little bath in the river of death and he is all but a damn ballerina dancer when in battle.

Typical.

"How the Hades did this thing even find us?" Percy yells amidst the giant's howls of pain as I slip under its legs and slice along its left thigh. Skidding to a halt, I grab the iron rail of the handicap ramp and use my momentum to swing myself around and meet up with my boyfriend. We sneak into the corner of the room and take refuge behind the nearest cardboard cutout of Wally the Whale, encouraging kids not to pollute the oceans with trash and oil, breathing hard and feeling slightly annoyed that our attempts at a normal date have been foiled yet again.

I glance dubiously at my boyfriend, who is looking hassled but slightly entertained as he wipes giant blood off of his sword. His hair is sticking up on one side and there is a bruise on his head (from where the giant first hit him all of five minutes ago), and I sort of want to smile, because in all of his disheveled glory, he's still sort of cute.

Sort of.

"I don't know how it got in here or how it found us." I snap, my mind racing to make calculations, computations to figure this out. Chiron had even said that we were more likely to fall into one of the glass tanks of fish than to get attacked by a monster here in the aquarium. Monsters didn't tend to show up in underground buildings unless they were really hungry. And since Percy and I had personally overseen the ass-kicking of Kronos and all the ugly minions that came with him, I wasn't really expecting to get attacked by a monster. I mean, yeah, so every date over the last year with Percy had ended up with us fighting off a monster, but who was to say that it would happen again?

Well, it did. And I have to say that I am sufficiently more pissed than I was on the other dates.

"Well, we better figure it out soon, cause we've got company. Looks like ugly-face wants another rumble." Percy gestures over to the corner of the room, where the giant is shoving his bulbous nose into the now empty fish tank, sniffing for us.

The New York Aquarium we had been walking in before so rudely interrupted was now devoid of any people besides Percy and I. They'd pretty much freaked and ran out after the part where the giant smashed the first fish tank. Though I hardly think what they saw looked anything like a giant. The Mist—thankfully—fixed any signs of magic that might have been visible. Tourists probably saw what looked like a big fat terrorist attacking two kids out on a date. Alarming enough to anyone, but really, it's nothing New York hasn't seen before.

I would know.

"You take right I take left?" I offer with a small smile, shrugging my shoulders.

Percy's returned smile confirms my question and, pointing forward, we creep out from behind our hiding place, only to find that the giant is not in the room anymore.

Great.

"Crap." I mutter, looking around the wreckage of the room for any signs of where it might have gone. "Where the Hades did it go?"

Percy doesn't answer me, as per usual when I ask questions that don't have easy answers. He is pacing the water around our feet, a puzzled expression on his face. I can tell from the small crinkle in his eyebrow that he is attempting to assemble a plan for us, when he really shouldn't bother. Assembling plans is and has always been _my_ field of experience on this team. His is doing what I tell him to do. It usually works, this system of ours. Except for the many times where he decides that I have no clue what I'm doing and does what he thinks is best.

Which hardly ever ends prettily, but I digress.

We probably could stand here all day trying to figure out what to do next. I am about to just tell Percy that we are going _this_ way when our direction is pointed out right before us.

Pointed out by the blood curdling scream coming from the floor above us, that is.

After sharing a quick glance Percy and I bolt up one, two, three flights of stairs to the main ground level of the aquarium. I am aware that chaos seems to be reining upstairs, judging by the sounds of more screams and footfalls above our heads, accompanied by a few choice crashes of course.

Suddenly, we've reached the main level and it is—as predicted—in chaos. Souvenir stuffed walruses and dolphins are strewn about the floor and tile are smashed and glass is shattered everywhere. It takes all of a second for Percy and I to locate the giant and all his smelly unattractive beauty, facing a corner. And though there is no particular reason for the giant to be facing the corner, my suspicion is immediately pricked.

Another muffled scream comes from directly where the giant is.

I am about to turn to turn to Percy and make a plan with him. You know, regroup, assemble our wits, and _then_ charge headfirst into battle? But by the time I look over next to me, Percy is already dashing across the room, straight for the giant, sword in hand.

Remember when I mentioned earlier that Percy tends to have these moments where he just doesn't listen?

Well, this is one of those.

Of course. Of _course_. Leave it to my boyfriend to be the impulsive stupid one who forgets me in his eagerness to let his testosterone take control of his actions. How _nice._

I sigh exasperatedly and began trudging over to Percy, who is busy leaping on the giant's back and bludgeoning the its head with the hilt of his sword, and glance over at the corner where the giant (who is currently roaring in pain as he tries and tries to claw Percy off of his back) had previously been standing. What I see stops me short.

Oh, so _that's_ who'd been screaming.

The mortal girl huddled in the corner is about my age, maybe a year younger. Her face is utterly riddled with fear and streaked with dirt and tears. She looks like she's been on the run for weeks, months even. Probably one of those homeless teens in revolt of society. Yet despite the exhausted look in her eyes and the grime on her skin, she is naturally and innocently beautiful, like she isn't even trying to be so. Her chestnut brown hair is strewn about her shoulders and her ocean blue eyes blink up at me as if not sure I am real.

But hey, I'm not one to point fingers. If I was a mortal who'd just been attacked by a giant ugly monster (and probably seen it as a big fat terrorist because of the Mist), I wouldn't exactly know what was real or not either. But maybe that's just me.

"Here," I hold my hand out, hoping to sound kind without sounding too sappy. I'm not particularly cheery when I'm in such a mood as I'm in now, "Let's get you up. It's going to be okay."

The girl stands fluidly, not even taking my offered hand, and then blinks at me. "Thank you. That giant would have killed me were it not for you."

Now it's _my_turn to stare. This girl can see the giant. See it as it actually is. She isn't a mere mortal. My mind starts racing, because that can only mean one thing. How did she get here? Is she a demi-god? Why isn't she at camp?

It's typical to just stumble on another demi-god walking down the street. Not at this age, at least. Thanks to Percy telling the gods what for last year, all demi-gods around the world have been popping up at camp half-blood by the age of eleven or so. But this girl--whoever she actually was--had to be much older than eleven.

Suddenly, a strangled yell sounds from behind me. Torn away from my current brain puzzle, I whip around as the giant (who seems to have finally managed to get together enough brain cells to figure out that its assailant is on his back) tears Percy off and flings him against the nearest wall, his lower back whacking sharply against the concrete. I watch in horrified silence as Percy crumples to the ground with a groan, practically incapacitated. His lower back (at least a very small portion of it) is the only part that is vulnerable in his whole body. He hits that, he's pretty much useless for the next day or so.

Which, considering our situation, really could be done without.

Groaning, because I know how grumpy Percy can get when he actually doesn't kill whatever monster he's after, I turn to the girl again and ask politely, "Would you um…excuse me for a minute?"

Not even waiting for an answer, I take a running leap onto the giant's back, driving my dagger into its skull and ignoring its roaring and flailing hands as I kill it. Meanwhile, amidst the flailing and roaring, I'm trying to figure out what to do after this. After I get Percy up from his lovely collision with the wall and grab the girl, where to? The answer is unavoidable, despite the fact that I'm unwilling to embrace it.

I hadn't planned on returning to Camp Half Blood for another month or so, but it looks like what I planned on doesn't matter much any more.

Dodging another blow from the giant and stabbing it once more, I realize that I'll end up having to drive us all down there. The notion that I actually have to be the one who does the chaperoning on this particular field trip makes me more irritated than anything else.

The giant finally topples over, and I leap (albeit a little clumsily) off its back, landing on the floor and stumbling just a bit as the giant disintegrates in a puff of putrid yellow smoke.

Well, now that that's done with...

Wiping my palms on my jeans and smiling satisfyingly to myself, I turn on my heel to my boyfriend, who is lying on the floor and groaning still, eyes closed. My eyes slide from him to the girl who is no longer standing where she was.

In a second I find myself wishing she'd just stayed there.

She's sitting next to Percy, with his head in her lap, dabbing the blood off his forehead with her sleeve.

A dart of annoyance flashes across my stomach but I ignore it, dismissing it as post-battle jitters. I walk over, my ears picking up the far off sounds of Police sirens. It won't be long until we've got company. Bending down next to Percy and the girl, I subtly lift the back of his shirt and press my fingers lightly to his Achilles heel (or...Achilles back, I guess you could call it), recoiling when he hisses in pain. It's probably just a bruise to the skin, no bleeding or anything, but it's enough to mortally wound Percy.

Relieved that he's okay--or will be, once he stops moaning and groaning--I round on him, ignoring the fact that there's a witness to my wrath. Let the girl watch all she wants.

"What in the name of Poseidon's pajama's where you thinking, Seaweed Brain?" I ask through clenched teeth, placing well-practiced hands on my hips and towering over him. I'm hoping that I look plenty scary, even though he isn't even looking at me. "Jumping on its back without even consulting with me? Of all the stupid, immature things to do..."

Percy, whose eyes are closed as he groans and moans about his headache, frowns at me. "In case you were wondering, Wise Girl, we didn't exactly have a plan, nor time to make one."

The sound of sirens became closer and I swear out loud. We need to get out of here now, and he wants to discuss specifics.

Resisting the urge to haul off and punch him, I bend down again and start to stand Percy up. "C'mon, moron, we're getting out of here."

"And here I was thinking we were going to wait around and have a chat with the cops." Percy winces, leaning heavily against me.

Helping Percy stand up turns out to be more of a chore than I'd wished it to be, and I can tell he isn't going to get any lighter as we struggle to get to the nearest emergency exit. I figure that if we can just get down to my car, we'll be fine, I rationalize, grunting as Percy's weight continues to bear down on me. We can get back to Camp Half Blood and figure the situation out there.

"Here," the girl suddenly appears at my shoulder and I realize I've practically forgotten about her. She comes up behind his other shoulder and tries to help carry him. I say try to help, because she didn't really help, because once she tried to pick up Percy he just fell right back down to the ground again like a puddle of Jell-O.

"Ugh..." He groans again. I ignore it.

"Great." I mutter, holding back a Greek curse that would make any sailor blush. The situation is _not_improving. I can tell you that in minutes cops and EMT's will be swarming the place, and it won't look very good on our behalf if we were still in here, covered in monster blood and trying to escape. "Just great."

I realize slowly that while I stand there overlooking the entire situation and trying to figure out what the heck to do, that the girl is bending over Percy again, brushing more blood and sweat off his brow and smiling at him. Why is she smiling at him like that? My stomach lurches again and I grit my teeth. This girl, with all her innocent beauty and helpful attitude, is really starting to irk me. I'm about to tell the girl to knock it off with the Percy-preening when said Percy gasps out loud. I glance worriedly at him, but am confused to not find him in agonizing pain. In fact, the look on his face shows what he's feeling is anything but that. He's staring at the girl, wide eyed, as if her head had recently sprouted snakes.

I can't help wishing it had.

I look from one to the other my jaw dropping as the girl blushes prettily and lowers her eyes to her lap, whispering softly. "Hello, Percy."

And hey, I may not be one of the most intuitive people in the world, but I happen to know when two people are familiar with each other. _Really_ familiar. Like 'Hey-I-know-your-name-and-it's-been-so-long' familiar. I watch the girl with narrowed eyes and ask rather petulantly, "Um, do you know her?"

I'm hoping one of them will say 'No, we don't know eachother', or that her knowing his name was a lucky guess. But I can tell, from the way he's suddenly smiling, and the way she's blushing, that there is definitely something here I'm missing.

Something that I never knew about before.

I watch with masked horror as Percy's face takes on an expression of recognition, almost glee, as he stares at the girl with the cerulean blue eyes.

And then he utters the one word that soon begins the unraveling my very own sanity:

"_Calypso?"_

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**A/N: Yeah, I know that's sort of a cliffie there. Please don't kill me. Please just review and back away slowly. And yes, this is a chapter story. I promise I'll update soon. :)**


	2. Believability

**Author's Note: I know that plus six months is no excuse for not updating. I literally have had some crazy things happening and writing was coming in second to everything else. But now I'm here *surprise!* and I hope you are all still here to read and review this. Merry Christmas Everyone! Thanks for sticking by me and this story!**

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"Chaos is a friend of mine." - Bob Dylan

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The car ride back to camp is one of the most awkward silences of my life.

Because my lovely piece-of-crap car is ridiculously small and without a functional passenger seatbelt, Percy and Calypso have been forced to clamber in the backseat. Though it was mostly Calypso that did the clambering, seeing as Percy wasn't particularly conscious for our rather strategic get away from the aquarium (courtesy of my brilliant mind, as usual). The cops had shown up just as I tore out of the parking lot at about eighty miles an hour, Percy still passed out in the backseat with Calypso. We've been driving for about an hour so far, and neither of us has said a word, save for the idiotic mumblings of my boyfriend in dreamland.

Now, on normal occasions, I would be safely driving at the speed limit (some fifty miles under what I'm actually driving now) but when you've got a mortally wounded boyfriend in the backseat and a beautiful girl who appears to know said boyfriend and is sitting with his head on her lap, it tends to make one press the gas pedal slightly harder than usual. And by slightly harder, I mean hard enough that we're breaking about five road laws at once.

You see where this awkward silence is coming from now, don't you?

I glance in the rearview mirror for the twentieth time in five minutes, eyeing Calypso as she lightly brushes her fingers through Percy's dirty hair.

I suddenly have to resist another urge to vomit all over the floor.

"So," I drum my fingers on the steering wheel and pointedly watch the road, "You're name is Calypso?"

"Yes." She answers immediately, looking up surprised as if noticing me for the first time.

"Son of Atlas?"

"Yes."

"Forever trapped on an island to be tortured by handsome heroes?"

"Yes."

"So, mind telling me what in Hades are you doing here?" I ask, albeit a little harshly. I'm not one to beat around the bush, and I'm certainly not one to be polite when a situation has come up. Princess Pretty would just have to deal with it.

However, instead of looking affronted or upset by my abrupt question, she just shrugs slowly. "I don't honestly know myself. One minute I'm on the island planting my forget-me-nots and the next, I'm standing in the middle of the city on a very tall building…"

"You mean you just went poof! And showed up here?" I ask suspiciously, wondering how the heck that had even happened. The last time I'd checked my mythology references, Calypso was on that island for _good_. No vacations or mental health days for her.

So how had she ended up here, of all places?

"I tried going to somewhere near water, since I'm more familiar with beaches than I am with….urban life." Calypso continues, her blue eyes wide with innocence. "But the closest thing I came to that was not completely polluted and revolting was the aquarium I was at today, where you…" She trails off, because her narrative is obviously a simple fill in the blanks from here on.

The silence stretches on some more, until she finally speaks.

"You know Perseus?"

I accidentally jerk the steering wheel and send us swerving for a few seconds, but answer tersely. "You could say that."

"You are his sister?"

It is now that I nearly slam into the pick-up truck in front of us in my outburst of annoyance.

Oops.

"Um, no."

"His friend?"

"I'm his girlfriend." I say, trying to hide the smug streak of pride bound to come out in my voice.

She doesn't reply, and when I check the rear view mirror, she is back at brushing dirt out of Percy's hair, as if the mention of me being his girlfriend was no matter whatsoever.

Thankfully, I manage to make it to camp without any more near-collisions with trees, cars, and other intimate objects that one might want to take their anger out on via car.

Surprising, I know. But believe me when I say I was tempted.

I do not know why I am in such a bad mood when we get back to camp, but I am. I stalk past Thalia's tree and literally burst through the camp entrance, Percy leaning against me and limping, Calypso on his other side, holding him up. At once were swamped by a bunch of campers saying a multitude of greetings that swarm about my head like a herd of flies. "Hey look, it's Percy and Annabeth!" "I didn't think they'd be back till summer!" "Yeah! Welcome back, guys, it's great to see you!" "Percy, you've got to come check out this awesome cave we found out in the woods near the lake, you-" "Wait, what's wrong with Percy, Annabeth?" "Is he hurt?"

Really, the quick wittedness of us demi-gods makes me wonder how we even survived a war against the Titans.

"Someone get Chiron." I snap, walking Percy straight for the infirm and ignoring all other inquiries. "Now."

I deposit Percy on a bed as soon as I make it to the infirm, grabbing a bottle of ambrosia from the nearest medicine cabinet and pouring some out into a beaker. I press it to Percy's lips, feeling only a twinge of relief as he responds and begins to drink. Then I round on Calypso, who is standing awkwardly behind me, trailing me like a lost puppy would a child and say, "Do not leave."

Call me a Bitchy Dictator all you want. I did not become a cabin leader at age thirteen for my skills in tea time gossip and knowledge of knitting patterns.

"Annnabeth!" Chiron has galloped into the room, looking white as a sheet. "Percy, is he…"

"He's fine for now." I sigh, feeling some of the tension removed immediately from my shoulders as soon as he enters the room. Chiron has a ridiculously calming effect, and I am immediately reminded of how nice it is to see him again. "I think. He got hit in his.…" I trail off, not wanting to blurt the word 'Achille's spot' out to the entire room full of campers. "Temple, went unconscious."

Chiron must have heard and understood the lie, for he nods. "A monster attack, I presume? I thought you weren't on a mission."

"We weren't." I answer darkly, glancing over at Calypso, who has seated herself on the cot next to Percy's. Her blue eyes are fixed widely on Percy, completely unaware that both Chiron and I are staring at her.

"Is that a demi-god?" Chiron asked.

"Not exactly."

"Meaning?"

"Chiron, meet Calypso."

If Chiron was expecting a rather surprising explanation, I think this might have surpassed his expectations. His eyes widen and he looks at Calypso in wonder.

"But….her…the island..."

"I think," I continue, glaring at the floor, "That someone might have bargained with Zeus for her release."

"Bargained with Zeus?" Chiron looks incredulous. "Zeus never bargains, unless he owes someone very much, such as someone who saved one of his children, or the whole of Olympus, or….oh."

Yeah. My thoughts exactly.

During the continued silence of the car ride, I'd thought and thought about the possibilities. Being the one who entrapped her there, Zeus was the only one who could release Calypso. But Zeus wouldn't just wake up one day and suddenly decide to be a gracious and forgiving guy. Someone had to have bargained for her release. Someone who Zeus couldn't say no to.

And really, there was only one person on this earth stupid enough to bargain with the ruler of the gods, in all actuality.

What a seaweed brain.

"But if Percy did it, then how did she end up in New York City?" Chiron wonders aloud, pacing about the infirm.

"I'm guessing she ended up on the Empire State Building," I answer, "Or that's what it sounds like. She's been wandering around Manhattan for weeks, completely unaware of what to do. And…of course, Calypso would attract trouble if wandering around."

"Monster trouble?"

"Naturally."

I then describe the chain of events from the interruption-of-date-via-giant-on-rampage to Percy passing out cold. Chiron remains impassive, merely watching Calypso with acute interest.

"Alright." He nods once I finish my tale.

"So, where shall we send her?" I inquire. "I'm sure the satyrs can find her a nice woodland meadow to live in…or maybe she can join the Huntresses."

"Send her? No, no. She'll stay here."

"Exactly who should…wait, _what_?"

Disbelief, irritation and all above annoyance prick at the back of my throat, but I hold back my scoff.

"She's got nowhere to go, Annabeth—"

"But she's not exactly a demi-god, and she serves as a liability with her major monster attraction gene."

"We cannot abandon her." He says firmly, cutting off all retorts with a that-is-that stare in my direction.

"Calypso?" Chiron addresses the girl. She finally tears her gaze away from Percy, whose eyes finally fly open at this precise moment in time. "Come with me. You're probably exhausted. We'll get you a place to rest."

"She can use my cabin for the night." Percy croaks. "It's clear I won't be going anywhere."

Calypso beams at Percy, Chiron nods and I resist the urge to glare. Why would I want to glare? What is wrong with me right now?

They leave, and I walk slowly over to Percy, sitting next to him. He literally winces under my gaze.

"Care to explain?" My voice is ridiculously controlled for how unstable I feel.

"Um….which part? The how-could-I-be-so-stupid-for-getting-hurt-in-battle part or the who-the-Hades-is-Calypso-and-what-the-Hades-is-going-on part?" He grins guiltily.

"Let's start with the latter."

Percy sighs, and an arrow of guilt shoots through me. He probably isn't feeling all too hot at the moment, seeing as his whole body is most likely aching all over and his lower back is probably killing him. Nevertheless, he pressed onward.

"When I…died, all those years back when we were down in the Labyrinth," Now it was my turn to wince, because I knew what was coming, "I ended up on Calypso's Island."

I guessed as much. But go on, I'm in no hurry to get redundant facts here.

"She took care of me, she fed me, she got me feeling better. And then she gave me a choice."

"Stay or go." I mutter. I know the story.

"Well, obviously I chose to go. The war continued on, and when it ended, I told Zeus he needed to release her."

"Why?" I ask, sounding too defensive for my liking. "Why did you ask for her freedom?"

"You would have done the same." Percy sighs again, looking tired and aged suddenly, that grey streak in his hair standing out more than ever. "She'd committed no crime."

"So she's free." I reiterate. "And now what? Percy, she has no place to go, no family. How can you expect any of this new world to be good news for her?"

"Annabeth," Percy suddenly looks slyly at me, "…are you jealous?"

"I…what? Of course not!" I splutter. "Of her? Please. I'm not the jealous type."

"Yeah, right." He snorts, wincing again in his laughter.

"Percy! I am not the jealous girlfriend."

"Annabeth, if that's true, how come you could barely speak three words to Rachel two years ago without making some sort of malicious jibe, hm?" He asks all knowingly.

"That was different, Percy!" I exclaim indignantly. "We weren't dating yet, and you totally had a thing going on with Rachel! Admit it, you did!"

"Well, yeah, sort of, but I liked you too."

"Moot point. You were never involved with Calypso."

However, his sudden flush of color seems to say something entirely different.

"You were?" My voice shoots up several octaves of its own accord.

"Not exactly. She liked me, we were on an island alone together…it just…" His alarmed glance at my expression sends words pouring out of his mouth in a hurried rush. "We never kissed….or did anything…you know, it was just one of those harmless attraction things."

Harmless attraction things. How come it didn't feel harmless? How come the expression on his face as he talks about her feels anything but harmless at the moment?

But it didn't matter, really, I tell myself firmly. She may have been his great what-if that never happened, but I am his Wise Girl. I'm the one who spars with him when his unending invincible energy refuses to die out. I'm the one who he likes to kiss for excessive amounts of time when no one is looking (and sometimes when they are). I'm the one whose hand he holds.

And this I know, and am sure of. Percy cares about me.

But there is a part of me that can't help but wonder if he also cares about Calypso as well.

It is all very unsettling.

But I won't be jealous. Cause I could never be that ridiculous and over possessive.

"Do you believe me?" He asks, looking slightly apprehensive as I sit there and ponder.

I sigh. "Of course, Seaweed Brain."

He grins. "Good."

His grin is so laughably relieved that I can't even try to reprimand him for his idiot tendencies in battle. Thankful that everyone else has left the infirm, I just lean forward and kiss his lips, ignoring the taste of sweat and dirt that lingers on them. And somehow, despite the fact that he is in pain, Percy pulls me down so I am completely on top of him, smiling rather devilishly against my lips and running his fingers rather eagerly through my own ratty looking hair.

It is considerably some time later before pulls away and whispers. "I'm sorry for getting hurt."

"You really gave me a scare there, Seaweed Brain." I answer back, my lips somewhere on the column of his throat.

"And you worry too much, Wise Girl." He replies, bringing me back up to his lips for a quick peck. "I'm alright, aren't I?"

"You'll be sore tomorrow, that's for sure." He grunts noncommittally, blowing off the notion entirely, as he captures me in yet another kiss.

"Thanks for the date." I smile against his lips. "A little unorthodox, but I had fun."

And, despite the slight lie, I can't help but feel it is worth it in the moment. Percy just simply has this way of spreading immediate giddiness throughout my system. One of those weird things I hate and adore about him at the same time.

In this moment, everything is right. Everything is perfect.

If only someone could have told me earlier to enjoy the moment while it lasted, because very soon everything would be exactly the opposite of perfect and right.

* * *

**Author's Note: Once again, please give me the perfect christmas gift in the form of a review!**


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